


Summer in Italy

by Strawberry_Sweetheart



Series: Tumblr Drabble [6]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: And they’re stealing him away, M/M, Requested fic, Steve has sisters, tumblr drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:48:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24329818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strawberry_Sweetheart/pseuds/Strawberry_Sweetheart
Summary: They don’t like him, they’ve made it clear that they don’t, and Billy can’t say he likes them either. They’re playing tug of war with Steve caught in the middle and he’s losing spectacularly. He suspects that Steve gets a good kick out of it; he always looks a bit too amused when one of the girls come running up to him, pulling on his sleeve and dragging him away from Billy all too eager to keep him for themselves.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Series: Tumblr Drabble [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1703482
Comments: 4
Kudos: 71





	Summer in Italy

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by @duchessking on tumblr

He doesn’t know what he’s doing here.

The seats feel too small, and the table in which he sits at feels too big. Billy stands out like a bleeding sore thumb in the middle of a kitchen where the wallpaper is a pale yellow with delicate vines of blue flowers run up and down the walls, a kettle sits on the stove cooling. Everything in this house is petite; the tea cup he holds is tiny and fragile like if he grips it too tight he might snap the handle clean off. His pinky rubs at a chip at the base of the cup as he stares at honey colored tea that lets wisps of steam into air; he stares at it hard if only to have something to look at that’s not the girl that leans against the stove, assessing him with hard eyes. She must think it funny, Billy with his leather and denim in the middle of all this pastel lace.

She’s probably trying to figure out what he’s doing here, too.

It’s weird, but, Steve fits right in with his khakis and pastel polo shirts even though he never imagined him in a setting like this. It fits him well. Like something Steve’s been holding onto has been let go. He can see him from where he sits, right across from the dining table, above the stove and kettle, he can see him through the open white linen curtains, framed by the window like a picture. The sun is different here, more golden than Billy has ever seen, more golden than California, bright in way that’s softer too, gentler, and it’s lights Steve up like a candle.

Seraphina follows the line of his gaze and scoffs, pushes away from the stove and rolls her eyes. She’s the oldest of the girls who live here, and she looks nothing Steve, not like the others do. Her hair is pulled in a dirty blonde pony tail, tied neatly with a white ribbon. Her shirt is white, her shorts are white, everything about her is white and soft fabric, but nothing about her look is soft. "How’s your head?" She asks and Billy doesn’t want to admit that whatever’s in this prissy little cup managed to alíviate his headache; he doesn’t fair well traveling by plane he’s discovered.

"It tastes like shit," he’s referring to the tea, "what’s in it?"

"Arsenic. We needed to find a way to get rid of you."

They don’t like him, they’ve made it clear that they don’t, and Billy can’t say he likes them either. They’re playing tug of war with Steve caught in the middle and he’s losing spectacularly. He suspects that Steve gets a good kick out of it; he always looks a bit too amused when one of the girls come running up to him, pulling on his sleeve and dragging him away from Billy all too eager to keep him for themselves. Billy is not sulking.

He doesn’t know what he’s doing here, but he knows how he got here. Steve asked him out if the blue on day in the middle of gorging on a tub full of ice cream one afternoon right at the start of summer. He asked, "want to meet my sisters?" And Billy didn’t know Steve had sisters, but Steve wasn’t looking at him the way he does when he’s nervous and can’t look someone in the eye and Billy, without thinking, said "okay," because this felt like something important if the way Steve had been riled up all day was anything to go by. He didn’t know what it meant at the time, meeting his sisters. He thought it was a road trip out of town, maybe a few hours out, but what it ended up being was Steve’s dad paying for their plane ticket to the countryside in southern Italy.

Turns out there’s not much to do in a 10 hour flight except talk and the more Steve talked the more anxious Billy felt and the more anxious he felt the more he started to wish he hadn’t said yes to Steve, like saying anything but "yes" to Steve is ever a possibility for Billy. He’s over the moon and beyond the stars for that boy and Steve knows it. _She already had a daughter,_ he was talking about his Dad’s mistress, the one he cheated Steve’s mom with when Steve was only about four, _one and a half years old at the time, Seraphina — you’ll like her, she’s sarcastic and a will steal all your money in poker — anyway, she was close to losing her parent’s farm, had no money and a daughter to take care of on her own. And my dad, well, he was a rich foreigner here to do business with some of the surrounding vineyards in the area, all alone without his wife and a lose wedding ring that could never stay on his finger. Thought if she’s could snag him, she could keep the farm and raise her daughter. She didn’t know my dad was married and with a family back home, got knocked up and, well..._

The lady had quadruplets to make matters worse. Billy bet that Steve’s dad must have had a heart attack when he heard. He could only image the how much of his paycheck goes to his second family. Apart from Seraphina, a real spitfire that reminded him too much of Max, there was Scarlett. She had chestnut brown hair and a quiet demeanor, not shy like Billy had mistaken it for, but more of a reserved type of quiet. She inherited the Harrington height, only 13 but surpassing her sisters in height and only bound to keep growing. Then there’s was Serenity. She and Steve must share the same vocal cords because they’re both loud and always seem to be talking, chatter boxes the both of them. When the rest of the house is still struggling to rub sleep out of their eyes, Steve and Serenity are already talking a mile a minute at the table, barely pausing to shove bread into their mouth. She looked a lot like Scarlette, what his being quadruplets and all, but in a more compact form. Stephanie and Stephano were the most like Steve, though. They both had dark chocolate hair the same shade as Steve’s, thick and wild. The same big brown eyes, something Billy never pegged to be a trait that Steve got from his dad, but he swears he’s looking at the same set of eyes when he looks at them, the same glint if mischief and humor.

Outside Stephanie lets out a shriek of laughter and Billy sees Steve has her in a headlock, giving her a noogie while Stephano jumps on his back to team up against Steve. They all come crashing down. A figure of long limbs awkwardly stumbles into the kitchen and takes a seat next to Billy. Scarlett reaches for an apple in the fruit basket centerpiece of the table, wipes it on her yellow sundress and takes a good bite out it. She looks at him through the corner of her eye, leans back on her chair and man spreads despite wearing a skirt, really lady like. 

“Has Steve even gotten the chance to show you around the farm yet?” 

“Some.” 

It was when they just had arrived, Steve was bouncing in energy from napping but Billy couldn’t say the same. He was half asleep as he got dragged around, listening to Steve babble away. Even dead in his feet, Billy will never forget the image of Steve crouched on the ground, proudly hugging a full grown sheep hostage like a lamb. “This is Goose! I named her when she was a baby because the girls got to name the rest.” 

Steve walked through the door with the rest of his sisters trailing behind like ducklings, smile spread so wide, shinning white, he can be in a toothpaste commercial. Even as little Steve-time as he’s getting here, he wished Steve could spend more than the just the summers here, wishes his dad would let him visit more often, because it’s apparent how much he loves his second family. Seraphina quirks an eyebrow and tilts her head towards Billy, she’s still younger than Steve by a good few years but you wouldn’t think it by how responsible she is caring for her little sisters, or how grown up she appears next to Steve who has the habit of being a bit too childish. “You should show Billy the orchard, I can pack you some stuff to eat. Could be sweet, having a picnic with your boyfriend and all. I know we’ve been hogging Steve this whole time.” Seraphina smiles in a way that softens her normally stern eyes, and Billy thinks maybe not all of Steve’s sisters hate his guts. 

Immediately the rest of girls protest and whine, and Seraphina’s lips purse into a thin line, obviously about to scold them. Instead , Billy cuts her off, looks at the way Steve sheens with a layer of sweat from rough housing outside, glowing with happiness. He looks at the way Stephanie looks heartbroken at having to spend time away from their brother. And Billy isn’t nice, he’s an asshole and he’s mean and Steve always tells him how he’s always grumpy and hates people. But, well... it’s hard to not actually like mini versions of Steve running around him with those same large brown eyes. They all even pout the same. And really what is Billy supposed to do.

“Better pack a lot of food if we’re all going.” Stephanie’s little heartbroken eyes light up once more and Steve looks at him with this soft amused expression that makes Billy have feelings and shit so— he looks away, at Seraphina who throws him an appreciative look and turns away to start rummaging through cupboards. So maybe Steve’s sisters are not so bad, not when they make him smile like _that_ , even when they sit between them on the blanket. They stick their tongue out at him when they make Steve laugh and Billy blows a raspberry right back. 

Billy knows exactly what he’s doing here, he’s meeting Steve’s family and with it, he’s meeting a piece of Steve he had yet to see.


End file.
